Method to calculate energy efficiency of information technology equipment

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a METHOD TO CALCULATE AN ENERGY EFFICIENCY RATING for information technology equipment. This method specifically pertains to information technology equipment that doubles its capabilities in a predetermined timeframe according to Moore&#39;s Law. 
     This method uses a formula to calculate an energy efficiency rating based on power consumption and transactions per second. It further calculates a normalized rating where the absolute rating is adjusted based on Moore&#39;s Law prediction of improvements. As a result the method invented is the first and only method to compare information technology from various generations of hardware, processor and component architecture with each other in terms of their energy efficiency.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This present invention relates to power consumption of informationtechnology equipment and specifically servers.

Servers and other information technology equipment consume large amountsof energy. The energy consumption is depending on the load of the serverand increases as load increases. Depending on the components used insuch information technology equipment, the energy consumption issignificantly different even between equipment that has similarperformance characteristics and capabilities.

Furthermore every type of information technology equipment also providesdifferent levels of capacity for the applications that they run, alsocalled performance indicator(s), and typically measured in terms oftransactions per second. Such a performance indicator is used to comparedifferent equipment against each other.

As of today such performance indicators do not include energy efficiencyof such equipment relative to said performance.

While performance ratings by transactions per second are common thisinvention extends such measures with the associated power consumption tocalculate a rating of transactions per watt of power consumption todocument the efficiency of the equipment when compared to otherequipment.

Furthermore information technology equipment evolution is based on“Moores Law” that states that computers will double their capacity every2 years.

As Wikipedia states: Moore's Law describes an important trend in thehistory of computer hardware: that the number of transistors that can beinexpensively placed on an integrated circuit is increasingexponentially, doubling approximately every two years. The observationwas first made by Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore in a 1965 paper. Thetrend has continued for more than half a century and is not expected tostop for another decade at least and perhaps much longer.

Almost every measure of the capabilities of digital electronic devicesis linked to Moore's Law: processing speed, memory capacity, even theresolution of digital cameras. All of these are improving at (roughly)exponential rates as well. This has dramatically increased theusefulness of digital electronics in nearly every segment of the worldeconomy. Moore's Law describes this driving force of technological andsocial change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Following Moore's Law means that the transactions per Watt of energyconsumption will also double every 2 years and as such any rating forinformation technology equipment that is based on technology innovationthat follows Moore's Law has to factor this in to allow for a usefulcomparison of such equipment relative to its release date.

1. Field of the Invention

This invention pertains specifically to a method for calculating theenergy efficiency of servers and other information technology equipment.

Moreover, this invention allows the creation of a consistent and commonmeasurement of performance per energy consuming component over timeconsidering the continued capability improvement of IT equipment asdefined by “Moore's Law”.

Moreover, this invention gives purchasing guidance based on energyefficiency ratings by comparing equipment not just on features,performance and price but also on their energy efficiency.

2. Description of Related Art

Today there is no common method to compare information technologyequipment that includes a component for energy efficiency. Today'sbenchmarks are usually used to select equipment based on its performance(transactions per second) and not based on its energy efficiency inrelation to its performance (transactions per kWh). While today the bestperformance is still a fairly common measure, best performance for asaid energy consumption is much more meaningful for cost sensitiveorganizations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the limitations of the prior art, this invention defines amethod by which information technology equipment can be compared ontheir energy efficiency in either an absolute rating or relative to eachother in a normalized rating.

Absolute rating (called PAR4 rating—PAR4 is a trademark of Power Assure,Inc.) means transactions per kWh of energy consumption. This number willbe higher with each new generation of equipment as their capacity,performance and capabilities increases (See Moore's Law). A highernumber represents better energy efficiency by performing moretransactions per kWh of energy.

Normalized rating (called Vintage PAR4) means a number relative to adefined date in the past, normalized against performance increases asexpected by Moore's Law. This means that every two years the number oftransactions per kWh has to double to achieve the same normalizedrating.

Furthermore this invention allows for normalized ratings to createstandards to be achieved by energy efficiency ratings, e.g. Platinum,Gold, Silver, etc. to indicate that equipment is more or less efficientwithout looking to the detailed normalized rating. Furthermore thisinvention also claims that normalized ratings can be forecasted for eachyear in the future. (See FIG. 1) The normalized rating for a singlepiece of equipment will go down over time as its efficiency relative toMoore's Law increases in performance at the same amount of energy usewill be lower than new equipment, giving the equipment buyer a chance todetermine the optimal time to replace such equipment.

Furthermore the method presented in this innovation calculates allratings on a logarithmic scale to be in line with Moore's Law which isdefined by exponential growth.

Absolute ratings (PAR4) are calculated according to the followingformula:PAR4=log₂(tps/watt)*100

-   -   With tps being transactions per second    -   watt being watt of power consumption at 100% load

Normalized ratings are calculated according to the following formula:Vintage PAR4=log₂(tps/(watt*proc*2^((cyr-nsyr)/mly)))*100

-   -   With tps being transactions per second,    -   watt being watt of power consumption at 100% load,    -   proc being the number of processors (not cores within a        processor),    -   cyr being the current year,    -   nsyr being the start year of the normalization    -   mly being the number of years per Moore's law for said equipment        for a 2 times performance increase

Using both calculations can easily classify equipment on their energyefficiency either in absolute terms or relative to past and futureequipment. While this invention does not limit the precision of theresulting rating, the examples used will show integer values withoutdecimals.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a normalized rating graph for a single server for today,next year and in the future. As shown, the normalized rating goes downover time as performance should increase by a factor of 2 every 2 yearswhile using the same amount of power—as a result the rating drops by asimilar factor every 2 years.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, the present invention fulfills the above described needsin the art by providing a new method to establish energy efficiencyratings for information technology equipment that has many novelfeatures and advantages not offered by the prior art, like:

-   -   1. A method to calculate a PAR4 rating as an absolute rating of        said equipment's energy efficiency in terms of transactions per        kWh.    -   2. A method to calculate a Vintage PAR4 rating as a normalized        rating of said equipment's energy efficiency adjusted by Moore's        Law improvements in performance and efficiencies.

The result is a new method for energy efficiency rating of informationtechnology equipment, which is not apparent, obvious, or suggested,either directly or indirectly by any of the prior art.

OPERATIONAL EXAMPLE

Using this method to rate information technology equipment will showeasy comparison in absolute ratings and normalized ratings. As anexample the following server will be used to demonstrate the use of thisinvention:

Server:

Supermicro with dual Intel Xeon X5450 Quad Core, 100 GB Hard disk, 2 GBMemory

The number of transactions per second under full load using all 8 cores(4 cores on each of the 2 processors) is 131,000,000. The powerconsumption at such a load level has been measured as 243 Watt.PAR4=int(log₂(131,000,000/243)*100)=1904

If the same server would run less transactions per second e.g.50,000,000 the par4 rating would be lower as well:PAR4=int(log₂(50,000,000/243)*100)=1765(Note: Integer adjustments done to get rounded down numbers)

Calculating the normalized rating for the year 2008 based on a historicdate of 2000 will look like this:Vintage PAR4=int(log₂(131000000/(243*2*2^((2280-2000)/2)))*100=1404

For 2009 the same server would get a Vintage PAR4 normalized rating of:Vintage PAR4=int(log₂(131000000/(243*2*2^((2009-2000)/2)))*100=1354

For 2010 the same server would get a Vintage PAR4 normalized rating of:Vintage PAR4=int(log₂(131000000/(243*2*2^((2120-2000)/2)))*100=1304

1. A method to calculate energy efficiency of information technologyequipment, comprising: determining a transactions per second value for apiece of information technology equipment; determining a powerconsumption at 100% load value for the piece of information technologyequipment; and calculating an energy efficiency of the piece ofinformation technology equipment by dividing the transactions per secondvalue by the power consumption at 100% load value.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein calculating the energy efficiency further comprisescalculating an absolute rating of energy efficiency of the informationtechnology equipment.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating theenergy efficiency further comprises calculating a normalized rating ofenergy efficiency of information technology equipment over time.
 4. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising generating a normalized ratingsgraph for information technology equipment that shows the expectedrating of such equipment over time and in the future.
 5. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising using the energy efficiency to givepurchasing guidance based on said energy efficiency ratings so thatequipment purchasing decisions can include performance per energy usage.6. The method of claim 2, wherein calculating the absolute rating ofenergy efficiency of the information technology equipment furthercomprises using the formula:Log₂(tps/watt)*100 wherein tps is the transactions per second value andwatt is the power consumption at 100% load value.
 7. The method of claim3, wherein calculating the normalized rating of energy efficiencyfurther comprises using the formula:Log₂(tps/watt*proc*2^((cyr-nsyr)mly)))*100 wherein tps is thetransactions per second value, watt is the power consumption at 100%load value, proc is a number of processors in the information technologyequipment, cyr is a current year, nsyr is a start year of thenormalization, and mly is a number of years per Moore's law for saidequipment for a 2 times performance increase.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein calculating an energy efficiency further comprises calculatingan energy efficiency of the piece of information technology equipment bytaking a logarithm of the transactions per second value divided by thepower consumption at 100% load value.